diff --git a/src/kitemviews/kfileitemmodel.cpp b/src/kitemviews/kfileitemmodel.cpp
index 9bba37e78..8d8dda956 100644
--- a/src/kitemviews/kfileitemmodel.cpp
+++ b/src/kitemviews/kfileitemmodel.cpp
@@ -2091,6 +2091,28 @@ void KFileItemModel::sort(const QList<KFileItemModel::ItemData *>::iterator &beg
     }
 }
 
+static void stringToWCharArray(QVarLengthArray<wchar_t> &ret, QStringView string)
+{
+    ret.resize(string.length());
+    qsizetype len = string.toWCharArray(ret.data());
+    ret.resize(len+1);
+    ret[len] = 0;
+}
+
+static int lcompare(QStringView s1, QStringView s2)
+{
+    if (!s1.size())
+        return s2.size() ? -1 : 0;
+    if (!s2.size())
+        return +1;
+
+    QVarLengthArray<wchar_t> array1, array2;
+    stringToWCharArray(array1, s1);
+    stringToWCharArray(array2, s2);
+    return std::wcscoll(array1.constData(), array2.constData());
+}
+
+
 int KFileItemModel::sortRoleCompare(const ItemData *a, const ItemData *b, const QCollator &collator) const
 {
     // This function must never return 0, because that would break stable
@@ -2243,13 +2265,13 @@ int KFileItemModel::sortRoleCompare(const ItemData *a, const ItemData *b, const
     }
 
     // Fallback #1: Compare the text of the items
-    result = stringCompare(itemA.text(), itemB.text(), collator);
+    result = lcompare(itemA.name(), itemB.name());
     if (result != 0) {
         return result;
     }
 
     // Fallback #2: KFileItem::text() may not be unique in case UDS_DISPLAY_NAME is used
-    result = stringCompare(itemA.name(), itemB.name(), collator);
+    result = lcompare(itemA.name(), itemB.name());
     if (result != 0) {
         return result;
     }